Without the helmet, I know I would, I would my head would have been squashed. I had seven broken ribs here and the ribs torn off my back, down my back. I had my shoulder wrecked and I was feeling pretty sad in a lot of pain, and getting the locator beacon out and having the helicopter come was a pretty good thing.

My name is Murray Hutchings. I’ve basically been a possum trapper/hunter for over 50 years.

And in the early days of forestry, they were quite happy to have you driving around on four-wheelers.And then, I wanted to go and work over the East Coast because they were bigger possums and the forestry over there were very strict. They said, well, you can't come here unless you've got unit standards for riding a bike on hill country and towing a trailer. And I actually thought, gosh, you know I’ve done tens of thousands of hours on bikes. What, why are you telling me I have to do that?

So I went on a course and it really changed me. I thought, man, I know very little really. And I came out of there with a totally different mindset. It was really good. It has changed the whole way I ride.

With the forestry, you've had to have locator beacons which I was always going to get around to buying, but I never quite did until I had to. And now, I don't feel like I'm dressed unless I put my locator beacon on. You feel like if something happened to me, I can call a helicopter. I've got my own private helicopter.

I've got used to wearing a helmet. It's been quite hard because a lot of the helmets are not that user-friendly. I went to work up on some farms in Mātāwai after I left the forestry here and I came out with my helmet on to meet the farmer. And my mate, who was a fencing contractor, said to me ‘get that helmet off!’ You know, that is the opinion
of a lot of people. And I know that helmet has saved my life.

You know, I had a bad roll on my bike last year and without that helmet I would be dead. I know that. And I'd been down this hill every day for about seven days, I came to the steep bit and I looked and I thought, well, I've probably got a bit much weight on the front. Then I looked in the back, I thought oh, there's a bit in the back, I'll be right. I've only got to go down here. And I started to go and the front wheel dropped in a bit of a hollow. And then it started to come and I went to rev it to make it go but it was too late. It was already... It made it go faster, and yeah it just happened like that, y’know.

I had bruises down both sides of my face, two black eyes, smashed all my teeth in here, and the only thing that saved my head from getting crushed was the helmet.

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